Mo. Man Sentenced to Prison in Medicare Fraud Scam

The owner of two Kansas City-area medical supply businesses was sentenced Monday to three years in prison without parole for his part in a scheme that bilked Medicare out of millions of dollars.

U.S. District Judge Gary A. Fenner also ordered Godwin Iloka, 39, of Lee’s Summit, to forfeit his home, three vehicles and all the funds in two bank accounts.

Iloka owned Xcellent Medical Service in Raytown and Kansas City.

The sentence includes two years for Medicare fraud and a consecutive one-year term for a revocation of Iloka’s supervised release in an unrelated federal case.

On Aug. 9, 2004, Iloka pleaded guilty to credit card fraud and was sentenced to five years of probation and ordered to pay $34,882 in restitution. His involvement in the Medicare scheme violated the terms of that supervised release.

In the scheme, authorities said, two doctors would visit nursing homes and senior centers to recruit people who didn’t need motorized wheelchairs.

Then, according to the federal indictment, the two doctors would give Iloka and five other co-defendants fake “certificates of medical necessity” to bill the government for the expensive motorized wheelchairs. Once the claims were paid, authorities said the doctors would get cash or kickbacks, and the patients would get either cheaper scooters or no wheelchairs at all.

Between January 2002 and September 2005, Iloka and co-defendants submitted more than $5 million worth of false and fraudulent claims to Medicare on behalf of nearly 1,000 Medicare recipients, and received more than $2 million from Medicare, the U.S. Attorney’s office said.

Iloka admitted that he engaged in three other fraud schemes that resulted in a total loss of $331,162. In one of those, he submitted claims with Medicare for custom-molded shoes for diabetics, but provided them with less expensive standard shoes for diabetics. He also admitted fraudulently receiving Social Security benefits and opening a credit card line of credit in the name of another person.

Co-defendant Kennedy Igbokwe, 29, who owns and operates Cardinal Healthcare in Kansas City, also was convicted in the motorized wheelchair scheme and of money laundering.

Kenneth Agugua, 47, owner of Primecare Management Inc. in Kansas City, has pleaded guilty to taking part in the same scheme.

The two former doctors, Amazair McAllister, 49, of Blue Springs, and Ambrose Wotorson, 70, have pleaded guilty to health care fraud.

The men are awaiting sentencing